Learn Your Lessons

“Though things have been challenging, when I look back I can see how everything has worked for my benefit.” – Joe White

Learn Your Lessons

We were in the middle of another project and it was going well.  During one of our regular conversations we talked about how grateful we were to have things moving along.  Our work had been very challenging over the past six years so it was a relief to be able to enjoy some well-earned success.

It wasn’t that we hadn’t been successful over the difficult years.  It was more like we were feeling a respite from the stressful uncertainty that at times felt like a cold, dark blanket.  It was a blanket that made the present and the future feel inhospitable to our business and way of life.

But, this day was full of sunshine and it illuminated the day as well as days bygone.

“It’s nice to have things go well again.” I said.

“Yes.” Joe answered.  “Though things have been challenging, when I look back I can see how everything has worked for my benefit.” He continued.

“At the time when difficult things were happening it was impossible for me to see that things were working out.  But now, somehow I am able to see that even though all of these seemingly bad were happening, by some miracle they were really good things.”  He concluded.

I didn’t know everything he was talking about, but I knew more than almost anyone else did.  And, I knew what kind of a burden he had carried.  I knew there were many times when it appeared as if there would never be a bright day again.  But, I also watched how he had dug deep and then ever deeper to rely on his faith to see him through.

And now?  Both of us know that there are most certainly challenges coming.  It’s inevitable given that life is a strict schoolmaster and we are its students.  You know of that which I speak because you are in the same school as Joe and I.  I’ve not received my final grade as of yet, but I’ve been able to identify another important lesson. 

There are at least two ways in which to look at the lessons of being schooled.  When our knuckles are rapped, seemingly in a cruel way, we all have the choice to become bitter and angry, to allow it to shape our lives into a dark, dreary shadow of despair and pain.  Such an approach never allows one to fully learn the lessons offered.  So, there must be a different approach that offers more.

A learning approach leads one to choose to see the rapping as something offering growth and gain.  Something that will allow one to search the depths of the soul so that internal faith can be extracted; the faith that would otherwise have remained hidden even from one's own view.  It’s benefit is that the learner can see it for what it is, an opportunity to become the best person they can possibly become.  You and I can only become our best if we learn the lessons offered and move forward toward additional growth.